Now this combination is the essence of food and wine. This why people over millennia have embraced the combination where each one complements and lifts the other, making the whole far greater than the two individual parts. Kinda like 50+50=150.

“Oh!” said a friend of mine with whom I’d shared my decision, “you’re going to become a sommelier!” Well, maybe. It’s on the list. This is where my OCD kicks in. It’s what I call my “While I’m At It” plan.

This isn’t a just-for-fun extension class where friends and I gather to learn about wine in a more-or-less social setting, but a real, read-100-pages-study-till-your-eyes-bleed-stress-over-midterms-and-finals college class.

In addition, the wine itself has direct contact with the plastic bag, which is a permeable, petrochemical-based material. If the wine has any decent acid in it, that immediately should be cause for concern.

You’d think that having all of those beautiful experiences among the stunning scenery and environment of wine country would make me long to be a winemaker. And you would be wrong. Oh so very, very wrong.

The cork forest sucks up CO2 which is generated in part by the plastic and aluminum refining processes. “Endocrine disrupter” is not a phrase you’ll see in relationship to cork. And there’s no such thing as a “cork spill.”

“There has never been a peer reviewed or scientific study done to corroborate the outlandish claims of 5-10% spoilage of wines due to the natural cork closure. This a fallacy, perpetuated by those with a vested, financial interest in selling alternative closures. I’m happy to have you quote me on that.”